Finite Element based Crash and Impact Analyses of a Newly Developed Road Cum Rail Vehicle

Abstract

"The two most significant engineering steps required in developing a good quality vehicle is crash and structural analysis in the field of automobile design. Simulating the crashworthiness of the vehicle is a significant step to design automobiles of the present age and automotive industry has probably the widest application of such simulations. Crash simulation is a virtual representation of a destructive crash test of a vehicle and its components using computer-aided analysis software to examine the level of safety of the vehicle and its occupants by analysing the level and nature of impact stresses occurring in the component and the magnitude and nature of the deformation happening in the cosmponent during a crash situation. In the current study, a road cum rail vehicle is designed. The main purpose of the vehicle is to clean the rail track. Since the vehicle will be used on the live rail track so it is very important to know the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle during crash or impact. The dynamic behaviour of complete vehicle chassis with four rail wheel and for rubber wheel in contact with rails and moving at 60 km/hr is simulated under frontal crash. Further, 10g frontal impact and the 5g rear impact are also applied on the developed vehicle chassis at rest to investigate its dynamic behaviour"